D&D 5E Do you allow fan made material in your games?

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Who made something is of no concern to me at all; official material isn't inherently likeable or well thought out, and fan-material is not inherently unlikable or poorly thought out.

The rule for what gets included in my group's gaming is this: bring me a copy of whatever it is you are interested, and unless it is clearly not going to work at all (i.e. "I've got this class I want to play that gives me full spellcasting, access to the same spells as a wizard, and also gives out a non-ribbon class feature at every level" or "This race seems cool, they have a +10 Constitution with a maximum of 30 automatically, plus they can attune to 5 magic items at once and concentrate on 2 spells at a time" or other such obvious issues), we'll try it out and see what we think after a few months of use.

 

[Lanliss]

I voted yes, though it is a hypothetical yes. Assuming a player, or I, bothered to look into DMsG, and found things that were interesting, I would say yes. At least, as long as they were actually adaptable to my world. If I cannot find a way to fit them in (unlikely, but you never know), they will be exiled to the land of One-shots.

 

[JeffB]

The questions reflects races, classes, sub-classes, feats, sub-systems. Reflavouring, reskinning, a background, a spell, or anything like that is not what we are talking about.

Thanks for the clarification. Now I can vote.

 

[JonnyP71]

Frankly, I'm not interested in any material produced by people who AREN'T fans of the game.

More in-depth: I voted yes, but your list leaves off a valuable resource: 3rd-party publications such as Primeval Thule or The One Ring 5e or any of a number of other high quality (many even hardback) non-WotC publications.

And I have produced several pieces for "fan-made" publishers (EN5ider among them). I think it would be silly to disallow something I wrote just because it isn't in a WotC book.

Hmmm, not *quite* the same. For example, I've bought Adventures in Middle Earth, and intend to run the stuff in it in the near future.

I would not allow anything from AiME in a standard 5E D&D game, likewise, all of the classes/races/equipment available in my AiME game will be as per that book, not as per the 5E PHB. I would treat any other 3rd party setting/OGL material in the same way.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I said nothing about 3PP. They aren't "fanmade".

Um., 3PP is fanmade. No 3PP that I know of isn't also a fan of the game. So it seems you're drawing a line somewhere. What exactly is that line, and I have a feeling it's pretty arbitrary.

To answer your question, I do allow 3PP material. Everything is reviewable of course, but like my old boss used to say, "No reasonable request should ever be unreasonable denied." If it fits the narrative of the game world, and mechanically won't totally screw everything up, I generally approve.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Hmmm, not *quite* the same. For example, I've bought Adventures in Middle Earth, and intend to run the stuff in it in the near future.

I would not allow anything from AiME in a standard 5E D&D game, likewise, all of the classes/races/equipment available in my AiME game will be as per that book, not as per the 5E PHB. I would treat any other 3rd party setting/OGL material in the same way.

I literally just finished our first AiME session an hour ago. It would be fairly hard to use 5e PHB classes and races into AiME, so I agree that it's best to separate the two. I'm thinking I may create a thread based on my learning experience today converting TOR into 5e using AiME (I ran a TOR adventure from the Ruins of the North book).

 

[Corpsetaker]

Um., 3PP is fanmade. No 3PP that I know of isn't also a fan of the game. So it seems you're drawing a line somewhere. What exactly is that line, and I have a feeling it's pretty arbitrary. To answer your question, I do allow 3PP material. Everything is reviewable of course, but like my old boss used to say, "No reasonable request should ever be unreasonable denied." If it fits the narrative of the game world, and mechanically won't totally screw everything up, I generally approve.

You could say that WoTc stuff is fanmade as well. I never said 3PP stuff so I made it clear.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You could say that WoTc stuff is fanmade as well. I never said 3PP stuff so I made it clear.

No, you're not clear, because you never said what you consider fan made vs. 3PP. For example, I think they are the same, so when you say you approve one but not the other, it makes no sense me. It would be like saying to me, "I'm including apples, but not fruits". Do you consider Kobold Press 3PP or fanmade? What about Green Ronin? What about ENInsider? What about me? At what point does fanmade become 3PP, and why include one but not the other? I'd bet my retirement that people have different ideas about when that line is crossed, if it ever is.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I'd bet my retirement that people have different ideas about when that line is crossed, if it ever is.

I've got a pretty clear line between 3PP, and fan-made, and I'm also pretty sure that you are right that not everyone is going to agree with where I draw that line; specifically, at the price tag. Something somebody put together and made available for free to whoever wants it is "fan-made'. Something somebody put together and made available for purchase is "3PP", while also still being "fan-made," assuming the content author isn't intentionally writing material for a game they personally can't stand and would never even consider playing.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I voted yes. I allow fan made material IMC and have made a fair amount of my own. Outside material does, however, get carefully vetted and anything I find unbalanced (or that doesn't fit the campaign) gets reworked until I'm satisfied with it. Historically, my players have preferred "non-vanilla" material. When I heard they rolled up a pair of humans and a half-elf for my newest campaign, I nearly died from the shock.